It is known to provide open containers with covers hingedly attached thereto. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,488,669 discloses a truck box which is configured to be placed in the back of a pick-up truck or the like. The container has a body portion which is closed by two covers on either end thereof. A central portion is positioned between the two covers and not only extends from front to back but also extends between the ends of the box. Each of the two covers includes a mechanism for latching the hingedly affixed cover to the container body. The two covers are independently latchable to the container body.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,967,944 discloses a hinge mechanism wherein the cover of a truck box includes a hinge pin which is positioned through an aperture in the cover and also an aperture in the body of the container. Thus, the pin not only affixes the cover to the body of the container, but also serves as the hinge pin itself for the hinge mechanism.
A drawback with the container as described in the aforementioned patents is that each of two covers must be opened in order to gain access to the interior of the box and even then full access is still not obtained. Furthermore, each cover has a separate latch mechanism which must be manipulated, locked, and otherwise operated in order to secure the cover to the container body. Furthermore, with the hinge pin/connector of the '944 patent, it is necessary to provide surfaces on the cover and the container each sufficiently large and strong enough to carry apertures which are aligned and through which the hinge pin is placed. This increases the complexity of the container, which is a drawback with molded plastic containers.
Because of the drawbacks noted hereinabove with respect to truck boxes having multiple covers, some development work has been made with respect to boxes having a single cover which can be opened from either of the two ends of the box. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,308,126 discloses a complex push-button lock system for a container having a single cover. Each of the two lock mechanisms are interactively operable, such that pushing the button on one side of the box will cause two latches to be disengaged, thereby allowing the cover member to be removed from the container body. The complexity of the latch mechanism of the '126 patent will likely cause the operation of the latch mechanism to degrade over time. Because of the large number of interacting parts, and because each of these parts must work in particular unison, a misadjustment with respect to one of these members may cause the entire latch mechanism to fail.
Furthermore, in the latch mechanism as used in the '126 patent, the push buttons extend out beyond the outside of the container in order to allow a user to manipulate the buttons. This protrusion beyond the ends of the container, as depicted in the '126 patent, makes accidental delatching of the container cover a danger and also increases the possibility of the latch mechanism being damaged by impact of the button with the surrounding environment.
There has also been some development in the art with respect to providing means to permit the better organization of items positioned in the interior of such containers. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,848,626 discloses a container having a series of grooves such that a divider is receivable within two opposing grooves, thereby dividing the container interior so that items can be stored separately therein. The divider is required to be substantially less than the height of the container's upstanding sidewall. The '626 patent also discloses a secondary container which is positionable within the primary container body. The secondary container has a cover member and is held in place within the primary container body by interaction with grooves therein.
It is a primary drawback of the state of the prior art with respect to containers in general and truck boxes in particular, that the containers themselves, and the attendant latch, hinge, divider systems and secondary containers are somewhat complex in nature. There is an advantage to molding such containers from plastic materials, which advantage is severely limited when complex structures of such nature are required to be formed in the containers, or when complex and inefficient latch mechanisms must be fabricated. Furthermore, with respect to the latch mechanisms, it would be advantageous to form the latch mechanism from simple stamped parts, which are often not usable with very complex latch mechanisms that require precise and fined-tuned interaction.
It has also been found in the container art in general, and with truck boxes in particular, that such containers are often required to hold and support heavy tools or the like. Because of this, the strength of the box and its dividers is of utmost concern. It has been found that with previously known thermoformed plastic containers, that such strength, even with strengthening grooves and the like, is often difficult to obtain.
Therefore, a need exists for a container having a unitary hingedly affixed cover, which container is manufactured of a plastic material and which is sufficiently strong to hold and support heavy loads. Furthermore, the plastic container should offer maximum strength with a minimum of profiled surfaces or the like. The container should be provided with a latch mechanism which is operable from either end of the container, which latch mechanism does not protrude beyond the ends of the container, and which is capable of securely affixing the cover to the container in the closed position. The latch mechanism should be sufficiently strong to hold the cover to the container, and yet should be simple in configuration. The hinge mechanism should provide a secure means of hingedly affixing the cover to the container, and yet should not require interaction with large surface areas of the molded container itself in order to achieve this purpose. Further still, the container should readily accept a divider mechanism therein without the necessity for any additional support structure for the divider itself. The container should also readily accept a secondary container therein in a secure and selectively positionable manner.